Pause
by the pick-it fence
Summary: When Mario has the opportunity to go back in time and alter the past, he will face what was once behind him and learn a few things about people he thought he already knew.


**Pause**

* * *

The ground trembled with every step Bowser took. The kingdom was practically in ruins now - its ashes in flames. This was Bowser's most successful plan by far, mostly because he had changed the general idea of it. Instead of doing minor damage to the kingdom, kidnapping the princess, and waiting for Mario to come and ruin everything, Bowser decided to visit the kingdom himself and destroy it all. After all, the princess was never what he was after –it was her land. Her land was the next small step to conquering the – you guessed it – world. It was never about the romance, or any of that mushy-gushy trash that everyone assumed it was. It was about world domination, making everyone a slave, and maybe, just maybe, letting the princess rule by his side.

But first, he had to get rid of that stupid Mario and his brother.

The whole gang was here: Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Princess Daisy, and Rosalina. All of them tried to fight off the armies of enemies that Bowser had sent their way. Rosalina tried to keep them at bay with her magic, but proved to be almost useless against the powered-up Koopas and Goombas. Peach and Daisy worked as a team, trying their best to fist-fight the enimies, but they were both knocked to the side as the enimies made their way to the real fighters: the Mario Brothers.

The brothers used every power-up they could until they realized it wasn't working. There were more enimies summoned if another was knocked out. It was no use. The brothers were pushed to the ground and beaten.

Bowser stood above them, grinning with mad power. "And yet you still try to fight your way out of this mess. It's obvious that I've won, Mario. Give up, you're only embarrassing yourself."

Mario growled and spit in the Koopa King's face, making him recoil a bit. Mario earned himself even more pain from the Koopas as they raised his head up and slammed it back down on the hard earth. He tried not showing any signs of pain, but he clenched his jaw and let out a muffled cry.

Bowser's eye shut as he looked over at the other brother, who was cowering in fear and had his eyes shut tightly – no doubt crying behind them. The King looked over at the princesses, who were still fighting off their fair share of evil. He looked at a Magikoopa, made a quick sign to go get the orange one.

Daisy felt two hands grab her shoulders and pick her up. "Hey! Let me down!" She threw panicked punches around her, but didn't hit her kidnapper. The Magikoopa tossed her body to the ground next to Bowser. He lifted her up, putting one hand over her mouth to cover her screams. She bit his hand, but his tough, scaly skin made Daisy's teeth ache. Luigi opened his eyes to the sound of Daisy's screams. He looked up, but was pushed back down by the Koopas.

The princess kicked and screamed, but Bowser didn't let up. He grabbed her arm and put it behind her. Looking over to the Koopas, he ordered them to let the brothers stand.

Rosalina and Peach were cornered together. "There has to be some sort of spell that you can use, Rosie. Anything?!"

"Not off the top of my head, your highness."

"Where's –" Peach gasped, looking over at the scene Bowser had created, "Daisy!"

Bowser pulled Daisy's arm back farther with every second. He wanted her to feel pain, just as he had for years. Did he have anything against the princess? No. But, he did hate Luigi, with a passion. It would be easy enough to break this plumber first - then work on his brother.

She felt her shoulder burn as it moved out of place. Luigi began to rage, fidgeting in his spot as the enemies tried to keep him still. "Let her go! Stop it!"

Bowser glared at Luigi out of the corner of his eye. Mario stood up right next to him, but didn't make a fuss. It looked as if the red plumber had actually given up. His nose was bloody and his eyes were glossy and oh, how _helpless_ he looked. Bowser's grin only grew more out of the pain Mario felt.

"Stop hurting her!"

Luigi continued to try to fight off the barricade of Koopas and Goombas throwing themselves at him, but to no avail. He was held in place, pushed to his knees, but his head up so he could watch what Bowser would do to Daisy.

Mario remained still, his head hung in shame. He was done for. Bowser found this amusing, how the brother's roles were reversed so abruptly.

"Stop hurting her?" Bowser said, pulling her arm farther back behind her so suddenly she burst into tears. "You mean put her out of her misery?"

And with that sentence said in a cold, dark tone, Bowser pinched the side of her neck, cutting it open slightly. Velvet blood flowed down from her neck to her dress. She passed out, dropping unconscious to the floor, leaving Luigi with the impression that Bowser had killed her.

Luigi looked at her body by the Koopa King's feet. Luigi's blue eyes became marred with red as he looked up, clenching his fist. "I WILL _KILL_ YOU!"

The enemies held him back, although he was putting up a much stronger fight now. Bowser walked over to the green plumber and laughed in his face. With a quick and painless wave of his hand, Bowser had sent Luigi to the ground, rendering him unconscious as well.

Mario was all that was left.

Mario was all that stood in his way.

This was _too_ easy.

Bowser circled around Mario, giving a generic little speech before the ultimate destruction of his long-time nemesis.

All the Koopas, Goombas and other enemies based off the Koopa DNA gathered round to watch the once-in-a-lifetime spectacle. With the enemies off to one side of the battle field, Rosalina and Peach were no longer surrounded. "Princess Peach, look over there!"

The princess looked up towards the two main attractions. Bowser had signaled the minions behind him to back away, for he was going to deliver a fatal blow to the plumber. Mario didn't object or fight back. Bowser found it amusing, but overall boring and easy.

Rosalina and Peach stood still, unsure of what to expect. "We can't do much at this point." Rosalina's wand began to blink. "I'm almost out of magic. I probably only have enough for one spell."

Peach inhaled and exhaled. A million scenarios played through her mind; a million thoughts bounced around in her mind.

Rosalina twirled her wand around, "Let's see what I can do, I suppose." Just before a beam of magic was about to shoot out from the wand, Peach stopped her.

"Save it," Peach said with a solemn voice.

"But, your highness –"

"But nothing," Peach looked up at the platinum blonde. "He's saved me many times in the past, and I have only once. I'll handle this."

"You might get killed! I can't just let that happen! The guilt will bring more pain than even Hell can deliver. I've lost too many people in my life already, princess."

Peach ignored her and ran towards the crowd. She pushed her way to the middle, but by that time it was already too late.

Bowser's fire breath had already been powered up and Mario braced himself for impact. Behind him he heard a woman scream and tell the tyrant to stop. Mario opened his eyes again, looking over at Peach running up next to him. The shot misfired, engulfing the princess flames. She let out one last scream of pain and agony before her body disintegrated, leaving only ashes behind.

Every stood there, flabbergasted and speechless. King Koopa had just deposed of the last of the Mushroom Kingdom's royalty. The enemies let go of Mario as he fell to the ground. Bowser stood before him. "Well, there goes the idea of ever having her rule beside me. I've made it this far without her. I guess it doesn't matter. But _oh! _I almost forgot that you two were in some sort of relationship, weren't you? I'll send my condolences to her _grave_."

"Why didn't you kill me? Why her?" Mario's breath was airy and weak. He was doubled over, hugging his stomach as he looked down.

"It was a mistake," Bowser snarled, "But a good one. If only I had gotten you along with her."

Mario shot up, trying to strike at the Koopa King, but was held back. The plumber kicked and screamed like a little child, but the enemies hadn't loosened their iron grips. Just as Bowser prepared to fire a shot at him, the world stopped.

Everything stopped.

The world around the group faded to white and only the crowd, Bowser, and Mario remained. Rosalina stepped in the white bubble, looking around at her work. It was almost impossible at her level of experience with magic, but Rosalina had casted a Time-Stop spell. As its name entailed, all time stopped, leaving the last frame of time available to change.

She strode over to the plumber and tapped him lightly on the shoulder, making him fall to the white floor. "Ow! Wait … what? Who? When? Where are we?"

"I stopped time," Rosalina stated, quite proudly, "so that we can change the past. Well, _you_ can change the past."

"Why me?"

"Well, it's my first time casting this spell, so I don't want to go too crazy. Two people traveling through time shouldn't cause much damage. Just be mindful of what you do and when, because we don't want to alter too many events."

Mario was confused. "So, you stopped time?"

Rosalina nodded.

"And we're going to change the past?"

"Yes. We will change _some_ of the past, not all of it. So, that means that we can't start from the day you were born and correct every single mistake you've done. Anyway, I'm not too sure how to travel to specific time periods yet."

Mario looked at the frozen enemies around him and Bowser, who was standing at a distance. They all looked like statues. And it was an even greater shock when he realized that _he_ would be going through time. "Will we be able to –"

Rosalina stopped him there, as if she knew what he was saying. "Yes, we will. But you're the only one who knows what happened before all this, -" she gestured her wand around them "- so you know what you're doing."

Mario remained kneeling, with his hands on the floor.

Rosalina bowed her head, "Whenever you're ready, Mario."

He looked up. He stood up, looking back at the chaos behind him. He took a breath before turning towards Rosalina.

"Let's-a go."

* * *

**First off:**

**NO, this has nothing to do with Dr. Who or will have any references to Dr. Who because A) I don't watch that show and B) Because I'm sure that more than half the U.S. watches the show and think if anything has to do with time-traveling, it has to do with Dr. Who.  
**

**Please do not spam this story with claims that "YOU STOLE THAT FROM DR. WHO!" or "STOP HATIN' ON DR. WHO! I LUV HIM!" or "STOP STEALING DR. WHO QUOTES!" I never watched the show ONCE, dang it! How would I know what I'm "stealing" from them and what I'm not?!**

**The only thing that this story will take from anything is the time-travel scenes from every Christmas Carol movie ever. **

**Anyway, I hate the death scene. It needed more details. I had nothing else. It was a literal brain fart at the moment. the pick-it fence sucks, I know. **

**_Pause_ is the sequel to _Buffering_ and the next installment of the Buffering series. Check out the latest "UPDATE" on my profile for more information. You don't need to read _Buffering_ or _Play_ to really understand this, so it's "alrite" if you have no idea what I'm talking about. **

**Bowser is waaaaaay out of character. Whoopdie-do. I can at least take him seriously this time. I've always thought of him as a joke. Same plan, same tactics, same gosh-darn results. **

**That is all. **

**BYE-BYE! **


End file.
